1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a data acquisition and diagnostic method for printing systems. It is particularly directed to a diagnostic method for high-performance printing systems wherein data streams from the most diverse originating sources are conducted to a printer via a printer control computer, what is referred to as a printer server.
2. Description of the Related Art
In such printing systems, the printer server has the job of converting print data streams of various operating languages such as SPDS/AFPDS data streams, LCDS data streams or PCL data streams into a specific data stream allocated to the respective printer, so that the latter prints the incoming print data error-free.
The publication, xe2x80x9cThe World of Printers, Ocxc3xa9 printing Systems GmbH, Edition 3a (1998), ISBN 3-00-001081-5, pages 12-1 through 12-8 describes printing systems wherein a plurality of printers (Pagestream(copyright)) form a printing system together with a print server (PRISMA(copyright)). The print server can thereby be operated with a control program (Prisma(copyright)+LCDS). In addition to enabling already existing printing solutions for host and network environments this control program is specifically suited for also enabling autonomous printing from existing environments (Xerox(copyright) applications).
Given high-performance printing systems that print 50 DIN A4 pages and more, problems also occur during printing whose causes are to be found in system environments, particularly in the various control programs of the control computer that cooperate with one another or in data constellations.
When such an error occurs, then it is necessary to analyze the printing system very precisely. Such an analysis usually does not ensue on site at the system at which the error occurred but in service labs that are specialized for this purpose and that are usually at a great distance from the location of the occurrent error. For this purpose, it is therefore necessary to transmit the system environment onto the analysis environment of the service lab exactly from the location of the occurrent error insofar as possible.
To that end, great quantities of data of the system environment, usually a few x-thousand resources like fonts, images, forms, logos, etc., are collected on data carriers on site and then re-recorded onto the service PC at the analysis location. What is thereby disadvantageous is that, due to the processing (transmission, copying, conversion) of these great quantities of data, a relatively long time, sometimes a few hours only for the data transfer, is required.
Japanese Patent Document JP-A-09073163 discloses a diagnostic method and a diagnostic apparatus for a photographic device, whereby device data are transmitted from a device controller to an essentially identical device controller located outside the device for diagnostic purposes. The diagnosis of possible errors that have occurred in the device or, respectively, in the controller thereof then ensues in this second device controller.
An object of the invention is to offer a method that enables a simple and fast diagnosis of a high-performance printing system.
It has been inventively recognized that, for successful reproduction of the system environment and, thus, for the diagnosis thereof in a high-performance printing system, it suffices to store and analyze those data, particularly resources, that were required by the printing system given a specific print job that caused an error condition. Many other resource data that are in fact stored on the faulty printing system but are not employed during the course of the print job causing the error need not be transferred onto the service control computer.
Inventively, the data of the print data stream that comprise a multitude of variable control information, a multitude of variable print data and a specific set of resources are therefore registered or, respectively, stored in the print control computer. In particular, the resource calls of data stored in the print control computer that ensue in the print data stream of the print job are also registered. The registered data are then analyzed and only those control information, data, calls and resource data that were in fact used in the appertaining print job are respectively selectively collected and stored. Multiple calls are filtered out, so that the data volume to be subsequently sent to the service computer of the analysis location can be reduced to a minimum. In particular, those resource data that are stored on the print control computer and that were accessed in the print job under examination are acquired in the collecting event.
Instead of employing data quantities on the order of magnitude of several hundred megabytes that cover all resources of a print computer, including all bit maps generated by the user, the invention makes it possible to employ selected data quantities of a few x kilobytes. Surprisingly, the system environment can be imaged onto the service environment exactly enough with such a reduced data quantity.
It is especially advantageous to proceed in two steps for the selective collecting and storing, whereby the data employed in the faulty print job are registered in the first step and these registered data are analyzed in the second step, and multiply occurring, identical data are filtered out and respectively stored only once.